Wednesday, 12 April 2017

Lesh Manibo - A Visit to Isla Verde Tropical Friendly Resort

In April 2017 Lesh Manibo and some of her friends came to visit our resort.

She wrote a nice review about her stay, and shared some beautiful photographs with us. I decided to post the review so I can share my favourites from her photos.

April 2017 - written by Lesh.

I never thought that a place like this still exist. This is a heaven sent place. All the people we met are very friendly and very accommodating.

The life at Isla Verde was just simple and that is what they teach in every tourists that come to visit them. I just hope that after a few more years when more tourists already discovered this place, it will never lose its own beauty.
This is really a good place to think and escape from the chaos in the city.
I had pretty much perfect pictures.

No need for filters or effects, just a perfect place, with perfect peers to be with and perfect photography skills of friends and tour guide.

When we were about to leave and I saw the glittering dust from above and the planktons that seem to be pearls in the sea at night, that was the time I knew that Isla Verde really captured my heart.

2 comments:

Writing this to forewarn others. I’m not sure if we’re the only ones who encountered these.

We knew it was in an island. We’ve read the blogs.

We checked in last April 28 and left April 30. Got a Stone House.

Firstly, The Room. The Stone House is hot – either poorly designed or wrongly-placed to take advantage of whatever breeze is on the island. In the evenings it’s even worse – it’s like an oven. When I asked for an extra fan, they’re reply: all rooms are given only one fan and they can’t give me another one. Power is provided by solar energy so there isn’t power for more fans. They (Diet and Jo) wanted me to open the door and the windows. Why on earth would we want to sleep at night with door and windows open? First, Security… and second… Insects… it’s an island, remember? Anybody read this in a blog post or previous review?

Secondly, The Power. Power is provided by solar energy. I only saw a single solar panel in the whole resort (unless they got more hidden away). During the day, you’ll see that more of then than not, there is no available power – you can’t charge your phones if you have a dead battery. But it’s high noon, in summer! You have to ask them why there is no power and they’d go and flip a switch to turn it back on. A technician comes in morning and afternoon to run a generator to pump water to their storage drums (more on that later) and that’s the only time that electricity is somewhat consistent and you can charge phones. After that, power plays hide-and-seek. Power permanently goes off around 10pm. And that’s it. Anybody read this in a blog post or previous review?

Thirdly, The Water. There is no continuous running freshwater. Period. Like a said, a technician comes in to run a generator to pump water to drums placed on the roof of a building. Once the drums are full, generators shuts down and gravity brings the pumped water to the ENTIRE resort. Once the drums are empty, that’s it. You need to wait for the drums to be full again to get water at the faucets. And it’s saltwater… you’re in an island, remember! There is an old-school manual water pump available, though.

For drinking water, you either bring your own or buy from the resort. Price is fair.

Fourthly, The trip back home. The boat that brings you back to Tabangao Aplaya is a public transport boat servicing the entire island. So if one pick-up point ahead of the resort brings the boat to a full capacity, you need to wait for another boat. On saturday morning, the group that was supposed to leave at 3am waited but no boat picked them up. They got picked up 8am. On sunday morning, we were told that our pick-up time was 7am, we got picked up 9am. And while we were waiting for the boat, not a single staff, or Diet or Jo came to see how we were doing. We had to continuously chase them. Probably because we paid our balance the evening before.

The only saving grace of this trip to this resort were (1) The company that we had. We tried to make the best of trip and (2) the beaches.

The beaches. Hands-down pristine and majestic. There is a marine sanctuary in front of the resort – but the entire coast of Verde Island and the Verde Island Passage is a marine sanctuary!

Noticed that the pictures of sandy beaches posted on most blogs about this resort are 15 minutes away – they’re not in front of the resort. The resort’s front is rock garden. You have to pass through this rock garden before you reach the corals and the fish. Swimming in front of the resort is made hazardous by the rocks --- aaannnndddd, there is no life guard!

Customer service. Reception was warm but try not to be pushy or too complaining and the goodwill goes away. Their standard reply: “You’ve read the blogs, right? You’re in an island”. Along with a sarcastic smile and laugh.

There are some things that can be done to improve – more solar panels, more storage drums for water to name a few.

But for now, I do not recommend this resort. Especially if you’re taking the stone house.